OK, so a little about me and about this blog. I'm a systems engineer, and while I love my job, it doesn't satisfy my creative side. I've always enjoyed the arts. All of them. I took as many art classes as possible throughout grade school. I was in chorus and in school plays. You name it. I was into sports...played volleyball and softball competitively and several others just for fun.
But I was also very into school work and doing something with my life. When I applied to colleges, I had every intention of going to med school afterward. I decided on Penn State, and after my very first semester, I knew med school was out. I realized how much I hated Chemistry, so I switched my major to Math assuming I was going to teach instead. Well, turns out, teaching wasn't written in the books for me either. When I graduated, I started at a small non-profit doing merchandise analysis. Slowly realized that while non-profit made me feel great about what I was doing, it wasn't going to move me out of my mom's basement anytime soon. :( Soooo. When the opportunity for an engineer position presented itself with a salary twice as much as my non-profit job, I jumped on it.
So now, it's been almost 3 years, and I'm still enjoying NOT being in my mom's basement :P Mom, if you're reading this, believe me, I was very thankful for that basement - love you! Once again, I do enjoy my job, but I needed some kind of creative outlet in my life. About two years ago, I took my first non-high school jewelry class. Wasn't anything super advanced, but it got me back into it. I'm still not advanced in any way, but I enjoy making jewelry (beading, some metal work - I'll post pictures soon).
Then this year, I decided to take a drawing and watercolor class. I loved it! Those were two things I had never taken individual classes on. But here's the thing...I have creative ADD. Seriously. I buy all the stuff to paint or draw or cake decorate, but if someone's not there making me do something (yes, I had homework in my adult art classes :P), I don't do it. Don't get me wrong, I like doing this stuff, I just have creative ADD. I have half-finished projects all over my apartment, which definitely doesn't have room for half-finished projects!
So anyway...my friend Sarah (you can catch her over at http://sarahandmarksbigday.blogspot.com/) got me looking at her blog, which then prompted me to look at all the blogs linked on her page, and it just went on from there. For the past couple months, I've been obsessed with crafting! Mostly because I'm a cheapo. Seriously. It can get pathetic at times. I'll stand there in a store and debate with myself for 15 minutes over whether I should buy a sweater or not. But that's not to say I don't have expensive taste. Unfortunately, I do. I love Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, and all those stores that have cute home decor and furniture and such. However, I refuse to pay some of the ridiculous prices they have on some things. Therefore, I'm on a mission to make my own version of said ridiculously-priced items.
I take ideas from these types of stores and from other bloggers, too. There are plenty of great tutorials available online. So one by one, I will create my inexpensive versions of things I like and post the results.
I also plan to post pictures of jewelry I've made recently. Some of these come from books I've purchased, and some are inspired by their more expensive counterparts. Some are actually designed by me! :P
So anyway, this post is getting insanely long. But I just wanted you to get a feel for who I am, what I'm doing and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I hope to have accomplished that.
Oh! And something else I forgot! The name of my blog. You might be wondering, "Why the heck does someone name their blog 'My Name is Jellybean'?" Well, there's a story behind that. Isn't there always? My dad was in the Air Force when I was young. I was born in Omaha, NE. My whole family (mom and dad's side) live on Cape Cod, MA. So naturally, the news of my birth came by telephone. Now, for those that don't know, my full name is Emily Geraldine Marks. I know, terrible middle name. Trust me, I paid for it as a kid :P But it was my great-grandmother's name, so I (try to) carry it proudly. Anyway, back to the story. When my dad called my nana and told her the news and my full name, she said, "WHAT?! You named her Jellybean?!"
And thus concludes my first post :) Pictures and posts to follow!
